Weather Armageddon and a blood-curdling film – on the film a large shipyard crane, pushed by the wind straight into the water. In Gdańsk on Friday the wind was so strong that at times it was a hurricane – 12 on the Beaufort scale. The crane, which fell into the port channel, broke during the extraction. On Saturday afternoon, it was possible to extract part of it.
The operation to lift the massive shipyard crane, which had collapsed into the port canal during a storm, lasted all day. But the disaster itself happened in the blink of an eye. This can be seen in the film taken on the afternoon of June 28 during a storm raging over Gdańsk, with hurricane-force winds exceeding 120 kilometers per hour.
The film shows a crane sliding along rails at an astonishing speed for this type of equipment along the shipyard quay, reaching its end, breaking through all the safeguards and tipping over straight into the port channel.
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The “Maja” crane is already in place and the fallen crane is being fixedTVN24
– The wind at that time reached 12 degrees on the Beaufort scale. Fortunately, the situation did not pose a threat to people or vessels passing through and staying in the area at that time, said Magdalena Kierzkowska, spokeswoman for the Maritime Office in Gdynia.
Port services immediately arrived on site and placed a special anti-oil barrier on the water. Fortunately, there was no chemical leakage from inside the crane.
Problem with pulling out the crane
Before noon, Maja, a specialist floating crane, arrived on site. It can lift structures weighing over 300 tons. The crane being lifted from the water broke during the operation, and its base was pulled out first.
The disaster occurred in the so-called inner port, on the main route along which tourist vessels sail from the center of Gdańsk to the sea, near the so-called turntable, a special device used for maneuvering seagoing ships.
– Tourist traffic has been suspended for a while. Sea vessels will also have to wait – said Piotr Bura, director of the Marketing and Communication Department of the Port of Gdańsk Authority.
The causes of the disaster are not known yet. Unofficially, it is known that the crane was to be specially fastened to the ground before the storm. On Saturday evening, the crane extraction operation was still ongoing.
Main photo source: x.com/remizacompl